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Ridgeway Challenge 2014
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Having not done anything near this distance before I'm interested to know how much time I should look to add min per mile against say marathon pace?
Thanks
Lee
Leebe - I would forget all about even pacing and minutes per mile, etc! Your pace is likely to be vastly slower than a marathon, especially a road marathon. The state of the terrain, weather, and how well you bear up under the strain make comparisons virtually impossible.
As a rough guide I did this in 21:40 when my road marathon time was about 3:50 and offroad marathons about 4:50.
You certainly need to be mental to do races of this length, booktrunk.
leebe: for example 4mph sounds incredibly slow at the beginning if you could do that consistently you'd be sub 22h. Sounds easy eh
i'm going to get around, but it's going to be sloooooow.
Thanks for the rough guides.
I realise that even pacing is an impossibilty, just wanted a rough idea of how timing translates from other distances.
The aim for me is to get round sensibly without burning out in the first few hours. It really is the unknown for me. Can't wait!
Everyone is different of course, and you get exceptions but I've seen a few people say for example you need to be around 20:30 at 50 to get a sub 24h 100.
So I think the hp general thing is you don't get many even / negative splits.
Look ok at this of an example of 100 pacing this is the live timing from ndw100 which is still ongoing. Nothing to do with ridgeway It's a 100 but it gives you some sort of idea of split translations
http://www.centurionrunning.com/live/2014-ndw100-live/
Also have you seen this.. I forgot it's brilliant
this is the race with some previous competitors splits 
http://climbers.net/race/Ridgeway-Challenge
I'd seen the climbers site. Thought it was interesting to see how some parts of the course appear faster than others. What is obvious looking at the splits though and understandable is that towards the end you only get slower.
Cheers
Lee
The race website has downloadable splits for the last few years, I used these to look at how people paced it before first doing it a couple of years ago. I think it was helpful. In the end I decided to ignore everybody at the start and try and run a fairly even pace but slow from the start. True to plan I watched everybody race off down the hill ahead of me and that's the most of anybody I saw for quite a while as I took a wrong turn an hour in and wasted a couple of miles! By halfway I'd started reeling people in then all through the 2nd half I was picking up places and finished about halfway down the field. Pace did slow but not massively and I was able to run all the way to the finish where many were resigned to walking 100%. I got pretty slack with checkpoints and after halfway made sure to sit down and have a cup of tea at each one. I think I probably spent more than 2 hours at checkpoints!
This time I'm aiming to get miles in the bank before the inevitable slow down and just hope I don't overcook it too early. Marathon pace at the moment I would guess is about 7:00, I'm looking to do the 1st half in 10:30 pace avg slowing to 12:00 for 2nd half. I don't know how well you know the course but there are some good hills in the first 20 miles so it's worth being more conservative so you can make the most of the flatter section after Chinnor and the downhill section from Nuffield. I'd say it's also worth being very brief at CP1 as you'll have a 5+ min walk coming out of Wendover to take some food in.
Another lesson I learned the hard way is with navigation. Don't be stubborn and assume you're on the right track if you're not sure of the route. The acorn signage is very good, so if you pass a set of signs and don't see mention of the ridgeway there is a good chance you've missed a turn. It's worth having a rough idea of the turns and terrain for each section so you're not questioning yourself or blindly going the wrong way - or actually follow a map!
Thanks Shawk
Some sound advice there that I'll certainly use.
Starting to slightly panic now, thigh still not right
pulled a hammy end of last month only done 22 miles this month.
Stuck between resting it totally before the race or just doing, very, very slow run walk stuff.
BT, sorry to hear about the injury.
With less than two weeks left I'd say there's nothing to be gained by pushing it now. Rest it and hopefully you'll be mended and well rested by the 23rd.
I agree, rest it, not much benefit from more training now, maybe give it a v gentle 30 min outing mid next week just to warm it up, but no need for anything longer or quick.
Remember you've got 26 hours to complete this, 18 min miles will get it done. Essentially you could turn up and walk the whole thing (indeed, some people do), so take it nice and easy if you're not confident it's properly healed.
Thanks everyone I'm desperate to go out and run, almost as a crutch to say I can do it... but everything you say is right. I'll go out for a decent length walk with the dog at the weekend and won't do anything before then.
Might even drive down to the start of the course to do it, it's 90 minutes or so away, and then i'll at least not be panicking about where i have to go to get to the right place on the 23rd.
Been reading the string of posts as the race is getting nearer - I ran this race last year and really enjoyed it, Staff and CPs are just brill so BT you should have a real enjoyable 24 hours.
BT - take it easy and rest, any chance you can get a sports massage in before Tuesday?, that would help the healing process for the hammy, if not self massage and stretching.
As Leebee and Shawk say there is no benefit in running now, rest up and most importantly get the mental aspect of the race sorted.
See you all on the 23rd
Walked the first 6 miles this morning
got a 50/50 chance of not getting lost in the first 6m now 
Probably do about 6m tomorrow or Tuesday then that'll be it for me.
Really looking forward to it!
So.The thing I learnt was the course is pretty dry
so I'm going with Hokas and will put a pair of speedcross 3s or normal road shoes (or both) in my drop bag.
struggle with getting cold in long runs, so I am considering long leggings from the start even if nice, as that means I hopefully won't get cold.
Might look silly and wear some ronhill shorts over the top that have loads of pockets in, for food so I can sort out at each checkpoint the food for the next section.
My race review from last year if anyone's interested
http://dill-runs.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/ridgeway-85-race-report.html
Good report Dill
Must admit i think I'm at the reasonable amount of gear, and not much of a clue end
but hey, only way to get experience is to run 
Ohhh... Last minute thoughts, are many actually running through the night? Or should I be thinking along the lines of using a bit more energy in advance of the night, and then pretty much power walk/march through the night (Approx 8:20pm to 6am) and hopefully have some energy to start running again in the morning?
BT,
I'm planning on running for as long and as far as I can. I have some practice running at night when running home after shifts.
It is a case of 'suck it and see' as I've never gone beyond 33 miles before.
Dill, I'd read your report before when looking for info on the race. There's also some good Youtube video's out there including one showing the chap that won (with the draw string bag). He was flying along!
I'm a 4:30 at best marathoner, so looking at the splits on climbers.net. The first section is a reasonably long one 16.9km but it seems the slowest anyone did this in was 8.2 KPH so just over 5 MPH that's a 5:12 marathon pace. That's the slowest!!
eeek!! I did a back to back weekend at the end of July and went out very carefully, and was just over 11 hours for these combined, but I did go out very carefully as I was just treating them as LSRs.
25 hours would be a nice finish, because that would give me 5 hours to do the invisible 14 extra miles to get a sub 30h 100m finish as my first 100 is the Winter 100 which takes place partially on this course, and along the Thames, so 50 flat miles and 50 along this (4 x 12.5m out and back loops).
I must set myself an A target so realistically my A target is 23.5h, B is sub 25h, C complete it.
6 KPH gives me the 23.5 hours that sounds ridiculously easy on paper, but in reality, I would be over the moon if I could keep that going for pretty much a day given time out at check points etc...
I've not done the maths but I reckon time spent at checkpoints will have more of an impact on your finish time than a small change in speed while moving. If you're able to grab what you need and go, especially on the night section when tired, you'll save a good chunk of time. Not messing about too much at Goring will help too, I took an hour there when I did it previously!
My plan is definitely to run as much as possible, minimal walking for the 1st 45 then walking as required from Goring, but hopefully not more than a couple of mins per mile avg.
In my timing plan i put down 10m at each CP, except at goring where I put down 30m.
so hoping that overall that should give me a bit of leeway.
shout "hi" as you power past
edit: for typos
booktrunk - the closing times for the first two CPs are a bit tight which is why most of the 'chasing group' have to get a bit of a move on. But after that the CP times are fine.
I wouldn't spend as long as that at CPs 1-3. CP 4 is in a very attractive location and usually serves hot drinks so it's certainly worth pausing there a bit. (NB a lot of people go wrong straight after CP4 so worthwhile having a good look at the map for that bit.) Half way, yes, 25-30 minutes would be fine. It takes that amount of time to see to your feet, change socks/shoes, eat, drink, and re-pack your bag - even doing all those things at once.
It is surprisingly cold at the very top of the Downs in the night so would suggest a L/S second layer, hat, and gloves.
And do carry your headtorch from the beginning. You have to be quite quick to get to Goring before dark.
At the night CPs you tend to spend some time at them because the staff are so friendly, ask what you want in your sandwiches, and at CP8 have a great log fire going.
Poor old CP9 has to put with a lot of grumpy runners just trying to finish and rejecting all the goodies on offer.
Aim to keep a (slow) even running pace to halfway and a slow jog over the night section. If you start walking for multiple hours it is extremely hard to get running again. At some point after sunrise you will probably start walking but be able to run well for the last few miles which, btw, do seem to go on and on.
The race is actually 87 miles, and the difference is all in the last leg which is nearly 2 miles longer than advertised, so be prepared for that.
One of my favourite races.
Completely agree - it's a great race, those last miles from the last check point go on forever! And the path in that section is pretty horrible as it's a green lane byway. Definitely a favourite though - hopefully I'll be back again next year for it! Have a good run!
I hadn't really checked the cut-offs! Should be okay providing I don't get lost, but I was planning on a mega slow start. I guess I'll just do the usual and run while I've the energy, then flog myself to the end.
Very glad I reccied the end bit. The longest 5 or 6 miles that's going to be!
Saying that, I'm really looking forward to it now, I'm not sure I've trained as well as I should have, but what's done is done and I appreciate both your positive comments T-Rex and Run the Wild. Cheers guys.
I was really happy with training then pulled a hammy so enforced 3 week taper that's only been a combined total of 30 miles. But it's feeling better now. Gentle plod for a very few miles tonight with feet taped how they will be Saturday, and then that's it. *gulp*
look forward to posting a tired "yipee" on here Sunday afternoon 
Sounds like my taper!!
And haven't you posted you've a frozen shoulder? Hope the physio irons that out.
Can't quite make out whether it will rain or not as it keeps changing, but temps look to be mercifully lower than last month, so it's looking good.